Trump campaigns for supporters at the Western Conservative Summit

World Today

Just weeks before the United States Republican Convention, presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump is reaching out to members of his party. Trump will need to gain support among Republicans in order to win the election in November. As part of that effort, Trump spoke to a group of conservatives at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado.

CCTV’s Hendrik Sybrandy reports.

The Western Conservative Summit is the largest gathering of politically conservative Americans outside of Washington, D.C. On the first day of the summit, Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, said Donald Trump was an outsider who conservatives should be supporting.

“Donald Trump ripped the veil off a rigged system that has betrayed your average every day hard-working garden variety ticked-off American,” Palin said.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee played to voters with those same sentiments, suggesting the militant group ISIL wants his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to become President.

“Hillary is a weak person. She’s a weak person,” Trump said. “They will not understand Hillary. They want her to get in so badly.”

Trump’s outspoken approach has turned off a number of conservatives this election year. A recent poll showed just over half of all Republicans would prefer someone other than Trump be their party’s nominee.

Jeff Hunt, the organizer of the conservative summit, said he sees the event as a coming-together between Trump, evangelicals and conservatives.

“Donald Trump’s never been an elected office holder,” Hunt said. “We don’t know exactly what he’s going to do. But many of us look at Hillary Clinton and go we know exactly what she’s going to do. And that scares us.”

As anti-Trump protesters clashed with police outside the Denver meeting hall where the candidate was speaking, Trump said U.S.-Mexico relations would improve after a wall separating the two countries, which he wants Mexico to pay for, is built.

“Mexico doesn’t like us right now. Mexico doesn’t respect our leaders,” Trump said. “We’re building the wall. The wall is necessary and we’re going to have a great relationship.”

Trump also touched on many familiar themes from his campaign. He compared his ability to nominate U.S. Supreme Court judges with one troubled South American nation.

That’s the difference between having our country as a great country and having Venezuela, where they’re fighting over loaves of bread in the street,” Trump said.

Though the room Trump addressed was just half-full, his audience seemed to endorse his fight against the status quo in Washington D.C. and establishment Republicans.

“It’s like being afraid of a thunderstorm,” Tom Kabis, Trump supporter, said. “They’re big, loud and scary but it’ll go by. It will pass and so will they.”

“We’re going to win, win, win and we’re going to make American great again, okay? So I want to thank you all,” Trump said.

The relationship between Trump and conservatives is uneasy. But experts said they’re critical to a in November.